Whatever lies ahead, Tories must get back to real issues

IT’S become a familiar sight in British politics: Boris Johnson tousling his hair in bafflement and exasperation when battered by troubling events. Today, millions of his despairing supporters must feel like performing exactly the same gesture. For the Prime Minister is on the brink of being dethroned.

It’s almost beyond belief. Less than three years ago, Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to a landslide victory on a message of hope and One-nation optimism.

Today, his government seems determined to devour itself. A string of sleaze scandals and regicidal plots in recent months had already destabilised Mr Johnson and the country at the worst possible time. The Mail has been urging loyal Tories to stand by their leader in these difficult times and allow him to get on with the job of running the country.

A backbench coup failed and despite a trickle of low-level resignations, the party could have rediscovered its common cause and sense of purpose.

Yesterday, however, the dam burst. The Chancellor and Health Secretary quit, no doubt hoping to promote their own leadership ambitions.

In doing so, they have not just gravely undermined their boss but have also betrayed millions of Tory voters, who elected them to work for a fairer, more prosperous society.

Instead, they have placed personal vanity over loyalty. Of course, some will argue they sought to wield the dagger from a point of high principle, having lost confidence in Mr Johnson. Others, however, will see only treachery in their deadly double whammy. We know from experience that voters turn their backs on parties that are at war with themselves.

After all, there are so many real-world problems that desperately need solving.

Militant rail unions are threatening a disruptive ‘super-strike’. Petrol has hit £ 2 a litre, hammering families and business. Holidays are being ruined by airport chaos and flight cancellations. NHS waiting lists are soaring. And food prices are rising so steeply that buttering the morning toast feels like a luxury.

So the putsch illustrates perfectly the yawning chasm between the public’s concerns and the preoccupations of the navel-gazers inhabiting the Westminster bubble. Even so, not even the PM’s most loyal disciples could convincingly argue that he hasn’t been lurching from crisis to crisis in recent months. A blizzard of blunders, scandals, misdemeanours and misjudgments — including Partygate — have seen his credibility seriously damaged. And many have been solely of his own making.

The latest is the depressing Chris Pincher affair. The former whip is accused of groping two men at a private club.

Inexplicably, Downing Street sought to deflect criticism by claiming Mr Johnson was unaware Mr Pincher was a serial offender when he promoted him in February. Even the Downing Street cat knew that wouldn’t wash.

And that position predictably fell apart yesterday when Lord McDonald, the former Foreign Office chief mandarin, publicly said it was not true.

There’s no doubt that the ex- civil servant, an embittered Remainer, was carrying out a cold-blooded hit job in revenge for Brexit. But still, if Mr Johnson had tackled the Pincher accusations head on when they surfaced a week ago, they would have blown over. Instead, the vacillation, dissembling and denials of the past few days turned them into a raging hurricane of recrimination.

The truth is, none of these scandals would have been mortally damaging in isolation. But the cumulative effect, magnified with relish by the Boris-haters at the BBC, Sky and ITN, has been a sense of death by a thousand cuts.

Can Mr Johnson — famously dubbed the ‘greased piglet’ by David Cameron — escape the grasp of his tormentors again? Time will tell.

The tragedy, however, is that he has racked up formidable achievements in his short time as PM.

He got Brexit done, saved Britain from the socialist nightmare of Corbynism, secured an 80-seat majority and presided over a world-leading Covid vaccination programme which meant Britain was first out of lockdown and on the road to recovery. Through a time of almost unprecedented difficulty — the worst health crisis in a century and war in Europe — he has kept the economy intact.

For these achievements, the party — and country — should be truly grateful.

Just imagine where we would be if Labour had been in charge since 2019. Bankrupt — and still in lockdown.

But Mr Johnson’s tendency to be cavalier with the truth damages his authority — and hands ammunition to his enemies. He has been warned countless times that to avoid stepping on political landmines, he must embrace discipline and propriety. It is a lesson he has yet to learn.

Still, he has been the victim of an unremitting assault by people with a vested interest in seeing him toppled, including resentful Tory Europhiles, the rabid Left and even his own civil servants.

The danger of yesterday’s coup attempt is that it could hand the keys to Downing Street to a coalition of chaos guaranteed to lay waste to the country.

Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s perpetually insipid leader, has little hope of overturning the Tory majority. But he could take power at the head of a ramshackle Left-wing alliance with Lib Dems, greens and — most frightening of all — the SNP.

What would be the likely outcome? The dismantling of the united Kingdom, economic ruin, a full- on woke culture war, a net-zero nightmare and a new system of PR voting — consigning the Tories to the political wilderness. Such a horrifying prospect should strike a chill through all right-thinking people.

What comes next for the Tories? Who knows. Boris may survive — indeed, he is already putting together a new Cabinet.

The appointment as Chancellor of nadhim Zahawi, a self-made man who understands business and the path to prosperity, gives cause for hope.

And Steve Barclay, described as ‘god-made’ for the Health Department, could get to grips with an NHS badly in need of reform.

There may yet be a way forward for Boris. If he is mortally wounded, however, those challenging to take his crown should remember: only under a government working to true Tory principles — low taxes, free markets and exploiting Brexit to the full — can Britain prosper.